Those long winter days

Mike, George and Spike

Moki on the right with his left ear now healed

We learn so much from these deer about being present in the here and now. As we drove to the Reserve today, we were complaining about the length of the winter, more snow, endless cold, etc. etc.

We started down the hill and saw these sights. Thirteen deer hanging out, together, content, chewing their cud, enjoying rest and soft hay. Just the perfect way to spend a January afternoon in the country.

Open waters

Don Murphy has brought his latest invention to the Reserve as of yesterday and we are happy to report that the deer now have 24 hour access to open, ice-free water despite temperatures overnight as low as -18 degrees Centigrade.

His invention doesn't have a name yet. It's about the size of a wood stove with three stockpots which are heated by a lantern with propane. The lantern is encased a vented, insulated metal box lined with aluminum foil. The single lantern heats all three pots of water thanks to a special spider-like contraption, again invented by Don, that transports the heat from the single lamp to all three pots. Ingenious.

We are 32 hours into the onsite trial and can report that we have observed Buddy and EGee enjoying a long drink and see no signs of ice in any of the pots. Don estimates that a single propane tank should keep the low level heat for up to 7 days. We continue to crack ice in other buckets for those less-courageous deer who have yet to discover the always open water source. Hopefully they will all find it soon helped by a few apples perched next to the bowls.

The same but different

When people visit the Reserve, they always express surprise that we can identify the individual deer. Aside from KoKo who is easy to recognize given his chocolate colour, at first sight the rest of the deer look very alike.

Having worked with the bucks for over 19 months, we know that each one is quite different and unique in both appearance and personality.

Here's how we tell them apart.

Max, the leader, is a large deer with one of the largest sets of antlers and a golden colour especially on his head and back of neck. He often stands in the middle of the herd, but never gets challenged by other bucks. (A challenge is when a deer lowers his head and antlers and moves towards another in a determined way. Sometimes the deer will tilt his head and show one eye to the other deer. )

Dandy, is usually the second in command. He is probably the largest deer in body size but his antlers don't have the wide palmation of the other large deer. He is very calm.

Mike is next in herd hierarchy but sometimes he vies with Dandy to gain status to second. He looks quite a bit like Max and has large antlers. However, his right brow antler is bent over his right eye in an odd way caused by a collision with a barricade when the deer were being moved to Florida from Scotland Road in May last year. Mike is very social towards people. We hope his antlers return to normal this year.

Gulliver is another large deer with the largest palmation of antlers. He seems to be the big brother of Moki (one of our youngest and smallest) who is a constant companion. Gulliver will often let Moki "play fight/challenge" with him but never exerts the full power he could if the fight were for real. Gulliver likes to chase smaller deer at feeding time, doing his best to get all the food for himself, but he never challenges a deer that is larger than himself.

Murph is a large deer with exceptionally long antlers with good palmation and many spellers (or branches). He has a dark coat, but not quite as dark as KoKo. He is very independent and spends time away from the herd on his own. He is not that interested in people...can take or leave 'em.

Bash is a large light-coloured deer with large antlers that have many spellers and very straight brow antlers. He, too, is somewhat independent and will leave the herd to go on his own. He likes to bully Buddy who is also light-coloured. Bash used to be very frightened of people, but he is becoming very social these days.

Ty has a compact body, a muddy brown colour and very wide palmated antlers with many spellers. Like Bash, he was very fearful of people when we first started working with the herd, now he doesn't seem too worried by us. He never challenges large deer for food or water, but bullies all the other deer the same size or smaller than him.

Buddy is a medium-sized light coloured deer. His brow antlers turn inward instead of straight ahead which gives him a slightly cock-eyed, cute appearance. His personality is carefree and he's very curious about people and what they are doing whether it be building a shelter, digging or hauling water. He will run away from food to get a good view of human beings at work.

EGee is a medium-sized deer with shorter palmated antlers, few spellers and long straight brow antlers. He has a dark brown winter coat with a splash of white on his right side where he was injured last winter. He is very social and calm and only occasionally will he bully George or KoKo at feeding time to get in the best position.

George looks like the other medium-sized deer in appearance except for his antlers this year which have little or no palmation. Our theory is that this odd antler formation was caused by the anti-inflammatory medication he was given last winter after suffering a "shoulder" injury. We hope that his antlers return to normal this year. George is definitely the most social of the deer and he can be a nuisance if you are working inside the fence as he has no fear of people and will invade human space quite easily.

KoKo is our most recognizable deer because he is very dark in colour and even in summer he has very faint "spots" on his chocolate-coloured back. He has a compact, you might say round body and he is very social and calm. He is the one most likely to be hanging out in the shelter of the woods rather than the person-made shelter attached to the barn. He seems to like to hang out with Ty or Buddy.

Moki is one of our youngest at 3 years of age. His antlers are palmated but smaller than all the other deer (except for Spike). His right brow antler bends to the right and this winter he lost the top of his left ear as a result of a tussle with Spike towards the end of the rut.

Spike is the other 3 year old with antlers similar to those of Moki. He is the only deer in our herd with a brown tail which makes him a "menil" fallow deer. Spike is social and curious and likes to hang out with George and fight with Moki.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

We apologize for not blogging in the past few weeks.We are suddenly into the full winter work schedule -- feeding the deer hay each morning, breaking ice to keep water open at least twice a day. We are happy to report that the new shelter is still standing and a windbreak on the west side of the lean-to survived the high winds of the snow storm on Sunday, December 16th. There is ample evidence that the deer have burrowed themselves into the hay in both areas out of the wind and snow.

We've just made an arrangement to have the laneway ploughed whenever necessary, so there should be off-road parking if you want to visit before Christmas or during the holidays.

We wish to thank everyone (in the hundreds!) who has helped the Fallow Deer Reserve this year. You are all very special people. We wish you much joy and peace for the holidays and much abundance in the New Year.

The non-party's over

Moki with injured left ear.

We are declaring the rut or mating season officially over. The bucks have returned to a more calm daily routine of grazing and resting while chewing cud. Most of the in-fighting has subsided. Mike and Dandy who had some prolonged and frequent skirmishes are now cohabiting in the shelter without fuss.

Casualties of the rut include many small trees and bushes that have lost bark caused by the bucks' regular thrashing with their antlers. And, Moki lost part of his left ear after a fight with Spike just this past week. At first we thought he might have ripped his ear on the fenceposts (think kids' rite of passage, tongue on cold metal), but then we saw some fresh blood on Spike's antlers. Mystery solved.

We have started feeding hay but as yet the bucks seem interested only in the hay's best parts (dried flowers, etc.) and push the hay around with their noses on the look-out for these succulent pieces.

Recently the herd has started to follow us whenever we walk around the 2700 foot fence line checking for damage, holes or obstructions. When we start out, Max usually walks quietly alongside or just behind us, followed by Mike and one or two others. Soon almost the entire herd is following along in single file except for KoKo. He finds it difficult to leave behind his beloved mineral lick and always choses it over the 1/2 mile hike.

Ice capades

We received these innovative ways to keep the water buckets from freezing this winter from Susie who lives on Florida Road. We have great neighbours! Your ideas are very welcome, too. Remember we do not have electricity.

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I doubt that I've thought of or explored anything that you two haven't, but I've been looking for ideas for solar heating of water for animals. So far I haven't come across the perfect solution (!), but, for what they're worth, here are a couple of suggestions I've found which might be better than nothing.

(Both from a website for feeding feral cats)

Get an old tire off the rim [we could get you one - someone dumped a few beside the road at the top of Wildlife Hill!], and stuff it with rocks. Wedge a container (like a large bucket) in the hole in the tire and put the water in there. The black tire will absorb the light from the sun during the day and heat the rocks within the tire The rocks will radiate the warmth enough to keep the water from freezing.

This suggestion comes from a horse magazine, to keep water for the horses in the fields in winter. The barn manager piled a few rock-filled tires on top of each other and then inserted a water bucket in the center of them. She said this actually prevented the water from freezing for a period of time.

"Snuggle Safe." It's a disk about the size of a frisbee intended to keep pets' bedding warm. Under normal indoor conditions, you put it in the microwave for 5 minutes and it stays hot for 12 hours. For outdoor use, it has been reported that the discs can be safely heated up to 8 minutes in a 1,000 watt microwave to last as long as possible outdoors. Depending on the microwave, the discs can conceivably melt so you have to do a little trial and error to see how hot you can go.

The discs are just the right size to fit inside the under rim of some large dinner plates and water bowls. In the frigid outdoors their heat lasts 2-3 hours. If you can afford it, it's convenient to have two sets of discs - that way you can heat and bring one set to the colony, and pickup and bring back the set used the last time you were feeding. Available through PETsMART (Item No. 451284; $19.99).
http://www.petsmart.com

New shelter

Here's the new shelter we put up this weekend as an experiment. It offers an additional place from which to feed the deer hay, keeping it dry and possible shelter from the winds. It's 20 feet long we left south and north ends open. The north end faces the barn which provides some protection from the north wind. So far, the bucks seem to appreciate it and haven't shown any signs of tearing at the sides. We shall see.

We are trying to find a solar or wind solution to keeping the water troughs from freezing this winter. If you have any suggestions, please make some.